The AIF Project

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Joined 6th Bn, Anzac, Gallipoli, 10 July 1915.

Admitted to HS 'Neuralia' and transferred to Mudros, 1 August 1915 (colic); to 1st Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, 4 August 1915; to Convalescent Camp, Helouan, 12 August 1915 (injury to knee); discharged, 20 August 1915.

Taken on strength, 60th Bn, Duntroon Plateau, 20 April 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 18 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 29 June 1916.

Reported Missing, 19 July 1916.

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 4 August 1917, pronounced fate as 'Killed in Action, 19 July 1916'.

Note on Red Cross File No 700207: trace Germany. Cert. by Capt. Mills 10-10-19.'

Statement, 4908 Pte H. PRETTY, 60th Bn (patient, St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, England), 20 October 1916: 'On July 19th at Laventie in the charge, my corporal and I saw Carroll hit, his right shoulder was blown away by shell. He was lying face to the ground. I believe he was dead. I have no information as to burial.'

Second statement, 2574 Pte G. CLIFTON, A Company, 60th Bn, 8 November 1916: 'He was badly wounded at Fleurbaix, by a shell, he lived for about 6 hours and was badly knocked about. I heard him say - he might live, if they got him in now, but he wouldn't live until morning. He was wounded on July 19th 1916 and he was dead when I crawled back in the morning July 20th.'

Third statement, Padre J.P. GILBERT, 60th Bn, 15 January 1916 (sic: 1917?): 'I have given all availble information to his mother months ago, except that I did not tell her that his body was never recovered. Up to the date of our leaving the Fromelles front it, with hundreds of other bodies, still lay where he fell, i.e. between our lines and the enemies (sic). It is, therefore, impossible, I regret to say, for me to furnish you with particulars as regards the place of his burial. I informed his mother that he was killed, although I know that he was officially posted as missing, because I knew that he had been severely wounded, and that his name did not appear in the list furnished by the Germans of those taken prisoner. I concluded therefore that he died of his wounds. This much I know for certain[,] that every effort was made to fetch in ll the wounded, and if all were not brought in it was chiefly owing to the fact that there were so many of them, and the more severely wounded must, in many cases, have died before they could be brought in.'

Fourth statement, 2574 Pte G.E. CLIFTON, 60th Bn, 22 June 1917: 'Cpl. Baker who returned to duty about January, having been wounded, told me when in [1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital] Harefield in October that he saw Casulaty [CARROLL] when he died, he having been severely wounded in the body. Casualty lived until morning after he was wounded at Fleurbaix on the 19th July. His body was not buried.'